London native Aaron Yoon jailed in Mauritania since December 2011

Londoner Aaron Yoon ? connected to two al-Quaida-linked former city schoolmates who died in the Algerian terror attacks ? is behind bars in a next-door African country on terrorism-related charges, a human rights agency says.

But in an almost-unheard of move for prisoners and detainees held for overseas terrorism, 24-year-old Yoon refused help from Amnesty International, an advocate for the agency ? who said he visited the young Canadian several times in prison in Mauritania in 2012 ? said Friday.

Yoon is serving a two-year prison sentence in the Saharan country, said Gaetan Mootoo, a 27-year Amnesty veteran who works with people arrested and accused as al-Qaida members and those who are tortured in prison.

He said he visited Yoon in June and July 2012.

?I tried desperately? to help, Mootoo, a 27-year Amnesty veteran, told The Free Press from Paris.

?He doesn?t want Amnesty to accompany him on his case.?

Yoon behind bars is right where the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the RCMP, probing the Algerian attacks, want him, said former CSIS officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya.

Yoon?s London family has insisted he went to Mauritania, a country so dangerous Canada advises against travel there, to study Islam.

Even so, stuck in a prison, he?s accessible to investigators who can use his situation as leverage to try to find out who might have been involved in the bloody January attacks on the gas plant in Algeria, he said.

?The Canadian authorities can say you better cooperate with us, or you are going to be here for a long time.?

Ali Medlej and Xristos Katsiroubas, two former London schoolmates of Yoon, died in the Algerian attacks. Yoon has not been implicated in those.

Mootoo said Yoon told him he?d travelled to Mauritania to study Islam in May 2011.

But before the end of the year the former South Collegiate Institute student found himself in jail, arrested by Mauritanian police. They scooped him up in December 2011 at a hotel where he was living in Nouakchott, the country?s capital.

Seven months later, Mootoo said he travelled to the region to meet with about 30 prisoners and detainees held in the Nouakchott prison for being linked to al-Qaida.

Yoon was the only Canadian among them, said Mootoo, and the only prisoner there ? or anywhere else before ? to refuse his help.

Torture, beatings and abuse in police custody and several prisons are common in Mauritania.

The central prison in Nouakchott, where Yoon is held, is known for holding al-Qaida prisoners.

At first the former Londoner refused to even speak with Mootoo. He said he met with every prisoner and detainee to hear details of their cases and offer Amnesty?s help.

Mootoo said he was concerned and repeatedly asked to meet with Yoon, who finally agreed to talk to him.

But while ?friendly,? Yoon steadfastly refused help.

?I?ve got a rare privilege and I try to deliver on it. He was in the detention there and I was enjoying total freedom to go outside and inside the prison,? Mootoo said.

He said he explained his work to Yoon. ?He accepts and understands it, and on the basis of the information I?d given him, he didn?t want Amnesty to disclose his information or to (represent) him,?

Mootoo said Yoon ?was with a group of detainees, they were sort of taking care of him . . . he was learning Arabic.?

Yoon and Mootoo conversed in English, he said.

Yoon?s refusal to accept outside help could be a sign he was indoctrinated into the extremist movement, said Juneau-Katsuya.

?These are young men who have been training and conditioned, and expecting to be interrogated, tested. To refuse to collaborate with authorities is part of what they were expecting,? he said.

?The challenge we face with these customers is they became religious zealots, so whatever they suffer in this mortal life it?s for the martyrdom.?

Yoon?s family maintains he went to Mauritania ? a country known as a place of Islam scholarship ? to study the Qur?an and Arabic.

Once there, he met up with Medlej and Katsiroubas, who went on to Algeria where they helped stage the horrific terror attacks that killed about 70 people including themselves.

But by the time those attacks took place, Yoon had been in prison for a year.

Friday, Yoon?s brother said the family believes Yoon has done nothing wrong.

?The Yoon family has maintained his inocence from the beginning and we still do,? said the brother.

With files from Randy Richmond, The Free Press

jennifer.obrien@sunmedia.ca

Nouakchott Central Prison

? Located in Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania

? Known for holding terrorist suspects and prisoners

? Torture, beatings and abuse in custody are common

? So is overcrowding, inmate violence and poor medical care

? Torture includes kicking, beating, arm-suspension, painful shackling, electric shock, burning and sleep and food deprivation

THE STORY SO FAR

Jan. 16, 2013: al-Qaida-linked terrorists take more than 800 hostages at a gas plant in Algeria. At least 39 hostages and 29 militants are killed. Algerian authorities say two Canadians are among the militants killed.

April 1: Reports identify former London South Collegiate Institute students Ali Medlej and Xristos Katsiroubas as the two militants killed in Algeria. Both come from middle-class London families. Katsiroubas converted to Islam while studying at South. Four Londoners apparently travelled to the region.

April 2: Aaron Yoon, a third former South student, is identified as a third Canadian linked to Medlej and Katsiroubas. He converted from Catholicism to Islam after graduating. Despite one report he?s in a north African jail, family members say he?s studying Arabic and the Qur?an in Mauritania, in northwest Africa, a country so dangerous Canada has a travel advisory against visiting it.

April 3: The whereabouts of Benjamin Thomas, who lived with Medlej and Katsiroubas in Edmonton briefly in 2007, and was charged with shoplifting there along with Medlej, remain unknown. Thomas also is on the London police most-wanted list. Is he the fourth man who travelled to the region? Foreign affairs officials confirm a Canadian is detained abroad. Reports say he is Yoon.

April 4: RCMP hold a news conference confirming that Medlej and Katsiroubas?s remains were found in Algeria. Without revealing much more, they appeal for the public?s help.

April 5: Mauritanian officials confirm Yoon is in one of the country?s prison, held on terrorism-related charges. Amnesty International reveals its representatives visited Yoon in prison but he refused their help. He was arrested in December 2011, convicted on terror charges and is serving a two-year term.

Source: http://www.lfpress.com/2013/04/05/london-native-aaron-yoon-jailed-in-mauritania-since-december-2011

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